Wednesday Linkstorm
George Saunders wrote a thing about his computer desktop for The Guardian, and it's very funny and sweet. Also includes a not-to-be-missed photograph he has in his office of the 1999 New Yorker 20-under-40s.Lots of writing out there lately about whether or not to go to grad school. The New Yorker's got you covered with cheery statistics like this: About fifty-four per cent of graduate students report feeling so depressed they have “a hard time functioning,” as opposed to ten per cent of the general population. Yeah [bitter laugh verging on a sob], that sounds about right.From The Millions: a comprehensive list of quality literary Tumblrs. Pretty disappointed that my joke Tumblr about freak dancing didn't make the list. Maybe next year?Sad news, E.L. Konigsburg, author of children's classic From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler, has died. That's the one where the kids run away to live in The Met. I remember reading that book and being totally blown away by the fact that they eat at an automat near the museum. An automat! What glamor! That was the correct thing to fixate on, right? Yes, definitely. The working title was From the Mixed-Up Files of etc etc: A Child's Introduction to Automats.You can take a literary walking tour of Brooklyn now. At last, Brooklyn of ample hills can be yours. "Been dyingggg to see where Thomas Wolfe worked on Look Homeward Angel!" --Liars/My freshman year college roommate, probably.Here's an L.A. Times review of [recent Barnstorm] poet Bob Hicok's new collection, Elegy Owed. Bob Hicok is the greatest. Everyone go read this book. Hicok's poems for Barnstorm here and here.Also from the L.A. Times: they announced their Book Prize winners. Fiction winner: Ben Fountain for Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk.Alexandria, Virgina is, according to facts acquired by someone, America's biggest consumer of popular schlock. Oops, I meant America's best read city. Let's hear it for Alexandria! Let's hear it for popular schlock! Let's hear it for the written word!Hey UNH folks, don't forget to come to the thesis readings tomorrow night. I'll be reading from my thesis, 175 Pages of Stomach-Turning Food Description (JOKE. It's Called Eat the World and it's brimming over w/ corazon). Nonfiction hotshot and 'za aficionado David Bersell is opening for me (That's how I'm thinking of it, Bersell. Deal.) Plus two other great readers and a super dubious microphone setup that I call "the dog collar." What's not to love? Consult that flyer that's being sent to you every four seconds for details. You know, the one with awesome clip art.